Doom 4

"We were standing on the edge of discovery. A powerful technology with infinite possibilities. Instead, we let them in. Fused an unholy union of flesh and metal. And now this brave new world has gone to Hell."

- E3 2014 Teaser Trailer

Doom 4 - also known simply as "Doom" - is an upcoming first-person shooter produced by id Software. An official release date has not yet been announced. The game will be released for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One.[1]

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John Carmack confirmed in August 2007 that the fourth Doom was in the future plans of id Software.[2] On May 7th, 2008, id announced that the development of Doom had begun.[3]

On June 23, 2009, ZeniMax Media, best known for Bethesda Softworks, acquired id Software and announced that all future id Software games will be published by Bethesda Softworks, Doom being one (in addition to Rage and future Quake titles).

In a 2009 interview, actor Brad Hawkins said that "I do know we are dealing with a post war/post apocalyptic event that civilians and military are fighting for their survival."[4]

At QuakeCon 2009 Todd Hollenshead mentioned that id Software will reveal new Doom information at QuakeCon 2010, between 12-15 August.[5]. At the beginning of QuakeCon 2010, Hollenshead said the development team was not ready to give a demonstration on the game. Tim Willits did however talk to the press in May 2010 to boast that "it'll be even more awesome than Rage."

id Software technical guru John Carmack has told OPM UK anyone expecting to wait a long time for Doom will have a shorter wait than first thought. Carmack told the mag the shooter should not take as long to get out the door, unlike Rage, which was announced in 2007 at QuakeCon, and will not be out until next year, producer Tim Willits told VG247 back in May. “Well we’ve got Doom 4 going on right now below our feet here,” he said. “The Doom team are all sped up and working on this technology base – I’m not really at liberty to discuss much about it, but it’s going full steam ahead right now." He adds: “It shouldn’t take as long to ship as Rage. It’s already in the pipeline and we feel good about it.”

On August 16, 2010, id Software CEO Todd Hollenshead apologised to Stephen Totilo of Kotaku for the game not appearing at QuakeCon in 2010, before mentioning the game is being targetted for a simultaneous release on Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, saying "That's absolutely what we're thinking."

On February 29, 2012, several screenshots were leaked, these can be seen at IGDaily's website. These images, however, have been confirmed as fake by id Software's creative director Matthew Hooper via Twitter. In his tweet, Matt said "Those images have nothing to do with what you're gonna see in Doom. When we officially show things you'll see awesome."[6]

Brad Hawkins doing motion capture work for Doom 4

On March 2nd 2012 a couple of screenshots were leaked [[1]]. Those images, however, have been neither confirmed nor denied as real or fake.

On August 3, it is revealed that Doom will be virtual reality-supported.[7]

In April of 2013, it was stated that Doom was in Development Hell when Kotaku published an article revealing that, after half of a decade, the people at Id had almost nothing to show for Doom. Bethesda's Vice President for marketing and PR confirmed that an earlier build of Doom was not of the high quality that Id and Bethesda intended to deliver, and as a result the game was being rebuilt from the ground up.

The pre-reboot build of the game was supposedly compared to the infamously linear and heavily scripted campaign segments featured in the Call of Duty franchise. It was also stated by an unnamed source that the best parts of the game generally consisted of cinematic horror and shock elements, but the action segments consisted of "contrived shooting galleries of hoards [sic] of uninteresting enemies".

Doom 4 is being built on id Software's id Tech 6 game engine. John Carmack has stated that the game will have better graphics than Rage, but is targeted to run at a lower framerate of 30 frames per second (on the PC version's multiplayer, it will run at 60 frames per second).[8] Id Software also intends to make Doom's multiplayer mode better than Doom 3's.[9]

On 19th February 2014, It was announced that Wolfenstein: The New Order would ship bundled with a beta access[11] key for Doom once it arrives in May 2014.

On June 10, 2014, the first official teaser for the game - simply titled "Doom" - was shown. It depicts robotic components being grafted onto a large demon, creating a Cyberdemon, accompanied by a female narrator lamenting the failure of her teleportation experiments. [12] A shotgun being cocked is heard and the door opens with the Cyberdemon looking down at what is presumed to be the Doomguy.

On July 17, 2014, a closed gameplay demo was shown to attendees at QuakeCon 2014.[1]

The game is fast paced, with sprinting, double jumping, and mantling being possible. No reloading mechanics are present (there are ammo pickups however) nor regenerating health (instead possessing health packs). Players are not limited in the number of weapons they can hold.[1] The weapons are displayed on a weapon wheel.[13] The gameplay is intended to harken to the classic games in the series.[1] A "karate system" is featured where the player can engage demons in melee combat. Fatalities feature in a manner similar to Brutal Doom.[14] Keycards are used to open doors.